“A Cage"

It’s sunny outside.
It’s only a sun
Yet men look at it
and sing.
I don’t know about the sun.
I know about the melody of angels
and the heated sermon
of the last wind.
I know how to scream until dawn
when death settles naked
on my shadow.
I cry beneath my name.
I wave handkerchiefs in the night
and boats thirsty for reality
dance with me.
I hide my nails
to mock my sickly dreams.
It’s sunny outside.
I dress in ashes.

Alejandra Pizarnik, A Profile, ed. with an introduction by Frank Graziano, translated by Maria Rosa Fort, Frank Graziano and Suzanne Jill Levine (Logbridge-Rhodes, 1987)”